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About

We all have a story – here is a glimpse at mine.

I have been happily married to Tom, the love of my life
since 1979. We are both originally both from Nebraska but have lived in
Northern California most of our married life. We have two amazing adult
children, a terrific son in law and three beautiful grandchildren. We feel
blessed beyond measure.

In 2010 I started my first food blog. At that time I
followed what I considered to be a healthy version of the Standard American
diet. I blogged about those recipes and my ups and downs with weight loss. At
my highest weight I wore a size 16! I have spent most of my adult life yo yo dieting.
What a terrible way to live.

One day in 2012 I saw Dr Fuhrman on a PBS special. I bought
his Eat To Live book and read it. The
timing wasn’t quite right but I thought it was interesting. Then I saw Dr.
Fuhrman again in 2013 on the Dr. Oz show with some of his Eat To Live followers on the show, and their transformations were
amazing! I was curious so I started researching plant based diets. My LDL
cholesterol had been climbing a little bit each year and I was determined not
to go on a statin drug. Dr Google was telling me that a whole food plant based
diet is what I needed to do! I wanted to control my health naturally and
achieve a healthy weight that I could maintain. A whole food plant based diet
looked like the solution for excellent health that I had been looking for.

After reading several WFPB books I sat down with Tom, my
meat loving hubby to tell him what I wanted to do. He has always been
supportive of my dietary changes and my challenges with weight so of course he
was ready and willing to help. That is, as long as he didn’t have to give up
animal products – he would eat what I fixed at home but was going to continue
to eat animal products away from home. Of course even that changed over time
and now he is completely WFPB!

I must admit that at
first I had a difficult time wrapping my mind around how to build a menu around
plants. Initially I spent far too much time looking at recipes and preparing
elaborate plant based meals. We both lost weight and felt amazing. But later
that year I started gaining weight around the middle, my hair was falling out,
my eyebrows were falling out, I was tired, cold and depressed. I hadn’t changed
the way I was eating or the amount of exercise. I ended up being diagnosed with
hypothyroidism. Even after going on levothyroxine I couldn’t lose the weight. I
doubled down and really practiced the principles of the Eat to Live program but the weight wouldn’t budge.

Then I heard about John Pierre and Chef AJ’s on line
Ultimate Weight Loss Program and I was already familiar with Chef AJ from the
Dr Fuhrman message boards and of course her cooking videos. I had some dialogue
with her on either Facebook or an email and expressed my concern that I
wouldn’t lose weight on her program because of my thyroid issue. She revealed
to me that she also had a thyroid problem and still lost weight eating this
way. That was all I needed to hear – I joined the last day you could sign up
for that UWL session. That was back in February of 2015.

Joining the UWL
program was the best thing I ever did for my health – both mental and physical.
The food program is similar to Dr. McDougall’s Maximum Weight Loss program and
the food philosophy taught at the True North Health Center located in Santa
Rosa California. I follow a whole food plant based, salt, oil, sugar, flour,
alcohol and gluten free food plan. In just a matter of days the cravings were
gone – I mean like really gone. Both Tom and I were loving having starch –
potatoes and rice – oh my goodness could this really work? Indeed it does work!
I had no idea that this is how “normal” people feel. My brain is calm, I feel
in control of my eating and everything is easier to deal with. I finally found
the miracle cure for good health, a calm brain and weight loss! I eventually
went from the size 10 I was wearing when I joined the UWL program back to a
size 4!

I will always be grateful to Chef AJ and Jay Pea for
creating the UWL program and sharing their knowledge with the rest of us. The
UWL program contains all the missing pieces that I needed to achieve being the
best version of me. The calorie density piece is an important component that is
missing from all the other WFPB programs I am familiar with as well as the
processed food addiction education.

I joined the UWL Mastery program to grow and learn more. I
want to keep building my skills and have all the tools in place to stay on the
correct path for the rest of my amazing life. I have been a mentor in the
Mastery program for the past two years and enjoy helping others achieve
success.

Tom and I also want to be able to pass it forward and to
help others achieve success with their own plant based journey. We are
dedicated to spreading the word about a whole food plant based lifestyle.
People won’t adhere to this lifestyle if they don’t like the food and we aim to
share how easy it is to eat the way we do!